This blog looks back at classic sports telecasts and announcers (primarily from the mid-1960s to present), provides DVR alerts for upcoming classic programming, and covers other historical aspects of sports media.

Monday, December 16, 2013

On Sunday 12/8, Don Criqui called the Browns-Patriots game for CBS which extended his streak of calling at least one NFL game on network TV to a staggering 47 consecutive years. Criqui started calling pro football on CBS in 1967, and while he has seen limited NFL duty in recent years, he has yet to completely miss out on a season. He was not scheduled to work games this year, but got the call as a short-notice replacement.

This got me wondering about sizable consecutive season streaks by other announcers so I decided to compile a informal "record book" on a sport-by-sport basis. Who holds the consecutive season mark in various sports? Which active broadcasters are positioned to set a new standard? For the purposes of this post, I am looking at consecutive seasons where a booth announcer called at least one regular season or playoff game for the same sport on a national TV network. Besides the NFL, I looked at college football, college basketball, the NBA, and MLB. I listed the top 5 streaks in each sport along with other streaks longer than 20 that I found.

Criqui holds the record across all the sports categories I have researched. He broke the previous record of 41 by Pat Summerall which still stands as the second longest streak across these sports. I am including the AFL, which puts Charlie Jones in third place. Pro football tends to have the longest such streaks with 6 announcers at the 30+ level. Assuming Criqui is done with the NFL, Dick Stockton will inherit the longest active streak. Joe Buck just misses the current cut at 20, but figures to move up on this list.

college football

40: Keith Jackson 1966-2005

30: Brent Musburger 1984-2013 *

24: Bob Griese 1987-2010
24: Gary Danielson 1990-2013 *

22: Ron Franklin 1989-2010

Keith Jackson holds the college football record by a decent margin. His entire run came with ABC making his the longest such streak for the same network. Even though ABC moved him to the NFL in 1970 for the first season of Monday Night Football, Keith kept this streak alive by also calling a college game that season. Brent Musburger owns the longest active streak.

Dick Vitale recently started his 35th season calling games for ESPN. This ties him with Billy Packer who called some NCAA Tournament games for NBC in 1974 and 1975 before becoming the analyst for the inaugural regular season college hoop package in 1975-76. If I were to count syndicated national telecasts, then the Packer streak would extend backwards one more season and be at 36. Several announcers on this list remain active. Vitale of course holds the longest active streak and recently expressed visions of extending the streak to 50 years. Musburger, who also appears on the CFB list, will make it 30 years on each sport once he calls a game this season. Ron Franklin also appears on the same two lists.

MLB

34: Tim McCarver 1980-2013 * (but not expected to continue)

26: Joe Morgan 1985-2010

25: Jon Miller 1986-2010

24: Tony Kubek 1966-1989

24: Chris Berman 1990-2013 *

Tim McCarver departs the network TV scene with a 8-season lead in the MLB category. Chris Berman becomes the active leader at 24 seasons. Joe Buck sits at 18 just 9 years away from the #2 spot on this list.

Special note: The remarkable Vin Scully is preparing for his 65th consecutive season in the Dodgers TV booth. However, because this post deals with streaks on national TV networks, he doesn't make the list.

The NBA has the shortest streaks of the sports covered in this post. Steve "Snapper" Jones holds the current mark for his work on TBS, NBC, ESPN, and NBATV. Kevin Harlan has the longest active streak and will likely set the NBA record in a few years. Hubie Brown would presumably hold the record (by a wide margin) had he not left the TV booth to coach the Grizzlies for a few seasons. Marv Albert does not make the list due to the 1997 firing by NBC resulting in his absence from the national TV airwaves for a few seasons. Stockton also appears on the NFL list.